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2019- The Year of Minimalism

We are quite a bit into January now so I can imagine a few of you are giving your New Years resolutions a go. Every year I normally start my year with ‘I’m going to be more healthy’, ‘I’m going to exercise more’ or ‘I’m going to work harder’, but normally by February I give up and go back to my normal routine- which isn’t terrible- but I feel like i’ve lost my motivation. So this year I decided to tackle a new goal of mine- to be more minimalistic. What I mean by this is that I essentially want to own less ‘clutter’ and buy less than I normally do.

Having loved fashion for years, having my own blog and also working in the industry, this has has meant that I’m forever looking at clothes, handbags, shoes and even beauty products. I’m basically a marketers dream and I buy into most trends, and probably buy at least one new thing a week- whether its clothes, make up or accessories. My friends know me as a serial shopper and my boyfriend rolls his eyes every time I show him the new handbag I got even though I have a million others that look the same. But this year I have decided to make a change, for a number of reasons. Firstly, I want to start saving money as I don’t even want to know how much I spend yearly on fashion and beauty buys. Secondly, I feel that if my room is less cluttered of ‘stuff’ I might feel less mentally cluttered- I know that sounds weird but it sounds sensible in my head! And finally, as you may of heard, ‘fast fashion’ is becoming a real problem, and I feel like I am a part of that. If you haven’t heard of the term ‘fast fashion’, it is a term used by fashion retailers to describe inexpensive designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to meet new trends. Essentially, high street stores are mimicking catwalk trends and constantly refreshing their stores multiple times a year with new trends so consumers buy into it. This means that there is a higher rate of consumerism but also a higher rate of waste as once these items are ‘out of fashion’ (or fall apart due to being poorly manufactured to cut costs). I definitely buy into trends and then chuck out clothes regularly, however after conducting my 4th year dissertation on the topic of fast fashion (let me know if you want a blog post on that) I’ve decided to buy less into the trend. So how exactly am I going to do this? Well, I’ve made a little plan with 4 changes I am making, so that if you are trying to also be more minimalistic, it will hopefully help you too!

Organise and stay organised!

Recently I have decided to reorganise my bedroom to see where I can get rid of things, and basically to make me realise what I don’t need anymore. I have been ruthless and it honestly feels so nice having less clutter around my room! I can see my clothes more clearly and for some reason it feels nice just having less stuff. Therefore I am hoping this will make me want to keep it this way and stop me from buying more!

Budget

I have decided each month I am giving myself a budget to spend on fashion and beauty. Recently, I got myself a monzo bank account (an online bank that lets to budget and see your spending via an app) where I have made a pot for fashion and beauty, so I don’t overspend.

Think before I buy

I am so bad for making rational decisions when it comes to shopping- if I see something I want, I buy it- and often I decide a month later I don’t like it anymore and it becomes waste. Therefore if I see something I like, I’m going to spend a few days thinking about it and if I still want it and can justify it, then I will buy it.

Donate to charity

This isn’t actually a new thing for me, I’ve donated clothes to charity for years, however I want to carry on doing it. It’s really easy to donate to charity- you can either go to charity shops with your things or you can find donation drop offs often by googling the nearest place to you. I often donate my clothing to the charity ‘bins’ that you find in H&M and TK Maxx. This limits the issue of waste in my life and makes me more inclined to get rid of things I don’t need as they are going to a good cause!

I hope this has been useful to anyone who has the same New Years resolution as me, and good luck to those that have any other resolutions they are working hard at!